Colgate University is where Dahlia Rizk is pursing her undergraduate degree.  The 20-year-old junior tells us more about the college.  "Colgate University is in Hamilton, New York.  It is a small town probably like two thousand people and about forty minutes away from Syracuse.  

I think one of the best parts of Colgate is it’s charm and its intimacy and how you can really just get to know anyone in your class, your professors and I really like that,” she says.  “I do like the city, but there is something very impersonal about it that is not found here and everything here is personal.  You are encouraged to come out of your shell and make connections and that is what I love about it the most.”

Already going to high school in the United States, Dahlia learned about the university she is now attending during a visit by a college representative.  “I’m Egyptian and an Egyptian citizen and I came to the United States five years ago.  Back home how it works is that middle school is three years and high school is three years. 

So I came here for three years of high school, but here in the states it is four years,” she says. 

“So I came here as a sophomore and I was in an all girls boarding school in Virginia for three years so obviously it made the transition to college a lot easier. 

“[And] that is where I met a representative from Colgate University which is where I am now and it was a stepping stone as to how I got here.”

Initially, Dahlia was planning to double major in International Relations and Economics, however she changed her mind and instead she is majoring in... ”I’m a double major in International Relations and French.  I have been studying French for a long time since middle school and I have always had a lot of respect for the literature and I really love studying it so that is why I decided to do it,” she says.  “And International Relations is something for me.  It felt right and it felt like my niche.”

As part of her French studies, Dahlia will go to France hopefully this semester.  “I’m going to France as part of my French major and it is for a semester, the groups have already been decided.  There is this whole application process that takes place in December of sophomore year so the fall of the year before so you have plenty of time to first decide what you want to do and then get to know the people that are on the group,” she says. 

“I am very familiar and comfortable with everyone else that is going and the program is a smooth transition because I have a professor now for a class that I am taking here and some of the students going are in the class and the Colgate academic standard is the same [as theirs so] you don’t have to worry about transfer of credit or anything like that and it is just a great way to have a new experience, but at the same time not wonder too much from the Colgate system,” she says. 

“France is a great place to study because there is always something happening.  Something new and dynamic about it so I am really looking forward to it.”

There are many memories Dahlia says she has from going to Colgate University, but one that stands out is...”It would probably be when I first arrived here and I can remember so clearly because I was the only one from Egypt and every time you meet someone it is the whole ‘where are you from’ you know sixty-second introduction and I would tell them where I am from, but then people would ask ‘so are you from the states?’ and I say ‘no, I am not from the states I am from Egypt’ and so that itself triggered great conversation and people’s eyes widened and that is what I love to see just broadening people’s horizons is great and I love that opportunity of doing that.”

Dahlia has one more year left before completing her studies.  She says she already is looking into going to graduate school.  “Right now I am looking into graduate school.  I don’t know what will come after grad school, but I do know that I want to study and I want to continue my education in the IR field in International Relations,” she says.  “So hopefully, it still hasn’t started the process of applying and all, but it is something that I want to do.”